News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-11-10
Communication.
GRoroN, Mass, Nov. 4, 1887.
YF,oo..o Tr<Jstoa.o

GROTON, Mass, Nov. 4, 1881.
Messrs. Editors:
This town has many things to at
tract the attention of any one interest
ed in things of ''ye olden time" In
its graveyard are graves of those
who died within the first half century
after the landing of the pilgrims; and
in various places around the town are
slabs to indicate the places of early
settlement, the first church and other
things of interest. have often Won
dered why our towns in Vermont
were not more careful to mark spots
of interest than they are. 1t costs lit
tie to do it and is a lasting memorial
to the local pride and public spirit of
the citizens
But / did not commence this letter
to lecture our people, but to give
to them some impressions of the
Fair of the Massachusetts Charitable
Mechanics Association, now being
held in Boston, in their building on
Huntington Avenue. The Fairs are
held every three years and it is safe
to say the last one is not the least.
The immense building is filled from
top to bottom with the products OF
the whole country, in fact of the
world, but still is in its general exhib-
it's distinctively an exhibit of the bus
mess and enterprise of New England.
You can find there almost anything
you wish from steam engine to 8
needle, a web of cotton or a roll OF
lace from steel and iron castings, for
there are casting. of steel and wrought
iron there that can be drawn and
hammered, cold or hot, as well as the
ordinary wrought iron and steel; also
samples of wire so fine that you can
hardly see them with the naked eye
articles of gold and silver, some of
them of very beautiful design and
workmanship; silks in the various
processes of manufacture, and so
many thousands of other things that
one would weary of thinking, much
more of speaking of them.
One of the things that seemed al
most alive was the Bigelow carpet
loom. 1t is an immense machine, and
so constructed that when its pattern is
properly put in and its hundreds o.
balls and spools of yarn in theil
proper places, it will, with very little
care, weave the most intricate pattern
in perfect manner, reaching out its
iron fingers and drawing out the wires
that regulate the pile in way thai
one must see to realize. Near this
loom was another, in which was 8
piece of brocaded silk. This was q
primitive looking concern that was
operated by the foot, but its product,
however, was very beautiful, but the
mode of operation 1 did not see as II
was not in use either time when /
was near it.
In another part of the building was
the first press on which Franklin
worked, little wood framed concern,
with no ink rollers, but instead, two
large buckskin bags filled apparently
with hair or wool and tied with strings,
which were used to ink the forms. AS
| looked just few feet away and saw
the most improved modern book
presses at work l wondered what
spoor Richard" would say if he could
step in and see the Improvement that
had been made.
The ladies were out in full force
and spared no pains to have all I'M
derstand that the articles in their de-
partment were the invention, and in
most cases the manufacture, of wo-
men, and very nice and creditable
some of them were too, but l confess
that I did not think that they realized
that in their persistency in claiming
them to be ''women's work" they tao
lilly admitted an inferiority to the
stronger sex that think they did not
need to 10. Those articles could
have stood on their own merit, made
by men or women, or invented by
either. They were in no need of beg
ging the question at all.
The management have shown good
judgment in making low prices of adj
mission this year, and are reaping
their reward by large attendance,
many of the visitors evidently being of
the working classes, the very ones
most to be benefited by seeing what
others were doing in occupations in
which they were themselves engaged.
Fine music is provided and easy
seats on which to sit when tired, as
one will be in seeing and thinking OF
so many things. There are also foun-
tains playing and ferns and flowers,
and many birds singing in their cages.
Not the least is the display Of gar
ments, many of them for the ladies',
and as overheard one say, "too nice
for anything" and so some of them
were in reality, so far as anything
useful was concerned. But lest J
weary not only the printer, but the
reader, 1 will stop right in the mids
of my story. Xxx